Data, SEO & AI Search · Original study
What AI assistants cite when Australians ask buyer questions
We asked twelve real Australian buyer questions across Perplexity, ChatGPT and Google AI Mode, and logged every source they named. Here is what we found.
The short answer
What we asked, and what came back
Key takeaways
Perplexity cited about thirteen sources per answer; ChatGPT about two.
For local services, directories such as hipages and serviceseeking won most citations, not the businesses' own sites.
For e-commerce, platform brands such as Shopify and WooCommerce dominated.
Across all twelve questions, Snowball was not cited once. Most Australian businesses start from the same blank slate.
The method
How we tested it
We took twelve buyer questions, four in each of three sectors, and ran them through Perplexity, ChatGPT and Google AI Mode with Australian geo-targeting on 20 June 2026, then logged every source each answer cited and grouped them by type.
- Professional and B2B: choosing an SEO agency, digital marketing costs, what GEO is, B2B lead generation.
- Local services: bathroom renovation cost, finding a wedding photographer, choosing a commercial electrician, buyer's agent fees.
- E-commerce: best platform to start an online store, Shopify conversion rate, Shopify versus WooCommerce, Google Shopping.
One honest caveat: of the thirty-six answers, twenty-four returned machine-readable citations. Google AI Mode's per-answer citations did not return in this run, so the domain-level detail is drawn from Perplexity and ChatGPT. Treat the numbers as directional.
The findings
What we found
Twenty-four readable answers, tallied by domain and source type.
The clearest pattern was how unevenly the engines cite. Perplexity is citation-rich; ChatGPT is citation-thin. That alone changes where you start.
Perplexity, per answer
Citation-rich. The lower-barrier place to earn a first citation.
ChatGPT, per answer
Citation-thin, and it named no sources at all on the GEO question.
Times Snowball was cited
Across all twelve category questions. The same blank slate most businesses face.
- Brand/vendor 52%
- Directory 13%
- Editorial 11%
- Social/UGC 11%
- Google 6%
- Gov/edu 5%
- Other 2%
Roughly half of all citations went to brand or vendor sites, often the platform the question was about, with the rest spread across directories and marketplaces, editorial guides, social sources, Google itself, and a few government and industry pages.
By sector
Each sector is won by a different source
Local services were owned by directories and aggregators. hipages and serviceseeking led trades answers, while wedding photographer answers mixed photographers' own sites with wedding directories.
E-commerce belonged to the platforms. Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce and the major payment brands crowded out independent voices.
Professional and B2B was the most winnable for an agency. Answers blended a few authority hubs with named agencies, so being a clearly named, cite-able expert is achievable here.
What it means
For Australian businesses
Winning AI citations takes more than a good page on your own site. Get listed and reviewed in the directories the engines trust if you are a local service, publish the definitive comparison or how-to guide if you sell online, and become a named expert if you are in professional services. And start with Perplexity, which cites the most. For the strategy behind this, read what GEO is and how to win at it.
This is a small first pass. We will expand the sample, add a Google organic cross-reference, capture Google AI Mode citations, and re-run it quarterly so it becomes a living picture of how AI answers cite Australian businesses.
Start here
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